The subject of the invention relates to a milk tube, a milking unit comprising a milk collection piece and at least two milk tubes connected to the milk collection piece, a milking cup comprising a milking cup sleeve, in which a teat liner is arranged, and a milk tube connected to the teat liner, and also a milking appliance comprising a milk collection piece, at least two milking cups which have in each case a milking cup sleeve and a teat liner arranged in the milking cup sleeve, and milk tubes which connect the milking cups to the milk collection piece.
Although the invention is described below in relation to the milking of cows, it is pointed out that the subject of the invention is suitable especially for use in the milking of sheep, goats, llamas, camels, dromedaries, buffalos, mares, donkeys, yaks and other milk-dispensing animals. The invention may be employed both in robot-assisted milking installations and in fully automatic, semiautomatic and conventional milking installations.
To milk an animal, it is necessary for the milking cups to be attached to the teats of an animal. The attachment of the milking cups may take place robot-assisted. It is also known to attach milking cups to the teats of the animal manually. The milking cups have a teat liner which is arranged in a milking cup sleeve. The teat liner is connected to a milk tube.
Embodiments are known in which the milk tube is connected to a milk transport line directly, that is to say without a milk collection piece being interposed.
Milking appliances comprising milking cups and a milk collection piece are known. WO 01/84913 discloses a milking appliance which has a milk collection piece. The milk collection piece has nipples which are connected to milk tubes. The milk tubes are connected at their other ends to milking cups. In the embodiment of a milking appliance known from WO 01/84913 A1, the milk tubes are designed as corrugated tubes. Further embodiments of milking appliances are known, for example, from the publications DE-A1-102 12 161, WO-A1-00/76299 and WO-A1-00/76300.
The milking appliances described in these publications have collection pieces having nipples to which the milk tubes are connected.
DE-A1-102 07 955 discloses yet another embodiment of a milking appliance. The milking appliance comprises a milk collection piece and milk tubes. One end of each milk tube is connected to the milk collection piece and the other end is connected to a milking cup. The milk collection piece has orifices. One end region of a milk tube is introduced into each orifice, so as to make a fluid-tight connection between the milk tube and the milk collection piece.
The milk tubes are connected to the milk collection piece such that a defined bend is obtained. The bend is intended to ensure that the milk tube is essentially sealed off when the milking cups are not attached to the teats. For this purpose, according to DE-A1-102 07 955, a bend element is provided, having a bending edge which is spaced apart from the connecting region of the milk tube and which defines a bending region in the milk tube.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,080,041 discloses a bent milk tube which is intended to reduce the stress upon the milk tube at the nipple of the milk collection piece.
It is known that the physiognomy of the udder, in particular of the teats, may differ greatly from one type of animal to another, from breed to breed and from animal to animal. It is also known that, for example, the spacings between the front teats are different from the spacings between the rear teats. This is taken into account by correspondingly adapting the spacings of the nipples on the milk collection piece. Furthermore, it is known that the milking cups may have different configurations or weights so as to be adapted more effectively to the animals.
Proceeding from this, the object on which the present invention is based is to specify a milk tube which has improved properties.